1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns reducing the emissions produced on burning fuel oils, gasolines or diesel fuels in automobile engines. More particularly, the present invention concerns reducing these emissions by pretreating the fuel prior to burning by removing sulfur therefrom as well as residual moisture and other residual reducing agents.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Presently, many of the efforts to reduce the air pollution produced by the automobile engine have centered around treating the exhaust rather than pretreating the fuel to reduce the toxic emissions. The catalytic converter, for example, treats the engine exhausts immediately before releasing them to the atmosphere. Many pollution control systems also rely upon recirculating the engine exhaust back to the engine for a "second burn" before releasing them to the atmosphere to reduce pollutants. The prior art does not provide a suitable treatment for the fuel itself, prior to burning, whereby the toxic emissions can be held to a minimum.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a treatment for petroleum fuels, such as crude oil, gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, fuel oils and like petroleum products, whereby the toxic emissions produced on burning those materials are reduced.
The present invention is related to an invention disclosed in the inventor's U.S. Pat. No. 3,766,075. However, an important aspect of the present invention not described in that patent is the addition of a solid acid to the fuels which are described in more detail below.